A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

look back I am lost
. “The price was paid,” Dany said. “The horse, my child, Quaro and Qotho, Haggo and Cohollo. The price was paid and paid and paid.” She rose from her cushions. “Where is Khal Drogo? Show him to me, godswife,
maegi
, bloodmage, whatever you are. Show me Khal Drogo. Show me what I bought with my son’s life.”
    â€œAs you command,
Khaleesi,”
the old woman said. “Come, I will take you to him.”
    Dany was weaker than she knew. Ser Jorah slipped an arm around her and helped her stand. “Time enough for this later, my princess,” he said quietly.
    â€œI would see him now, Ser Jorah.”
    After the dimness of the tent, the world outside was blinding bright. The sun burned like molten gold, and the land was seared and empty. Her handmaids waited with fruit and wine and water, and Jhogo moved close to help Ser Jorah support her. Aggo and Rakharo stood behind. The glare of sun on sand made it hard to see more, until Dany raised her hand to shade her eyes. She saw the ashes of a fire, a few score horses milling listlessly and searching for a bite of grass, a scattering of tents and bedrolls. A small crowd of children had gathered to watch her, and beyond she glimpsed women going about their work, and withered old men staring at the flat blue sky with tiredeyes, swatting feebly at bloodflies. A count might show a hundred people, no more. Where the other forty thousand had made their camp, only the wind and dust lived now.
    â€œDrogo’s
khalasar
is gone,” she said.
    â€œA
khal
who cannot ride is no
khal,”
said Jhogo.
    â€œThe Dothraki follow only the strong,” Ser Jorah said. “I am sorry, my princess. There was no way to hold them. Ko Pono left first, naming himself Khal Pono, and many followed him. Jhaqo was not long to do the same. The rest slipped away night by night, in large bands and small. There are a dozen new
khalasars
on the Dothraki sea, where once there was only Drogo’s.”
    â€œThe old remain,” said Aggo. “The frightened, the weak, and the sick. And we who swore. We remain.”
    â€œThey took Khal Drogo’s herds,
Khaleesi,”
Rakharo said. “We were too few to stop them. It is the right of the strong to take from the weak. They took many slaves as well, the
khal’s
and yours, yet they left some few.”
    â€œEroeh?” asked Dany, remembering the frightened child she had saved outside the city of the Lamb Men.
    â€œMago seized her, who is Khal Jhaqo’s bloodrider now,” said Jhogo. “He mounted her high and low and gave her to his
khal
, and Jhaqo gave her to his other bloodriders. They were six. When they were done with her, they cut her throat.”
    â€œIt was her fate,
Khaleesi,”
said Aggo.
    If I look back I am lost
. “It was a cruel fate,” Dany said, “yet not so cruel as Mago’s will be. I promise you that, by the old gods and the new, by the lamb god and the horse god and every god that lives. I swear it by the Mother of Mountains and the Womb of the World. Before I am done with them, Mago and Ko Jhaqo will plead for the mercy they showed Eroeh.”
    The Dothraki exchanged uncertain glances.
“Khaleesi,”
the handmaid Irri explained, as if to a child, “Jhaqo is a
khal
now, with twenty thousand riders at his back.”
    She lifted her head. “And I am Daenerys Stormborn, Daenerys of House Targaryen, of the blood of Aegon the Conqueror and Maegor the Cruel and old Valyria before them. I am the dragon’s daughter, and I swear to you, these men will die screaming. Now bring me to Khal Drogo.”
    He was lying on the bare red earth, staring up at the sun.
    A dozen bloodflies had settled on his body, though he did not seem to feel them. Dany brushed them away and knelt beside him. His eyes were wide open but did not see, and she knew at once that he was blind. When she whispered his name, he did not seem to hear. The wound on his breast was as healed as it would ever be, the scar that covered it grey and red and hideous.
    â€œWhy is he out here alone, in the sun?” she asked them.
    â€œHe seems to like the warmth, Princess,” Ser Jorah said. “His eyes follow the sun, though he does not see it. He can walk after a fashion. He will go where you lead him, but no farther. He will eat if you put food in his mouth, drink if you dribble water on his lips.”
    Dany kissed her